BIRDS OF PARADISE: PLUMES & FEATHERS IN FASHION

A dramatic and striking new exhibition opens at The Bowes Museum’s award winning Fashion & Textile Gallery in October; its only UK venue.

Birds of Paradise – Plumes and Feathers in Fashion is a tribute to the elegance of feathers used in the fashion industry past and present, featuring extravagant catwalk creations from British, Belgian, French and Italian designers including Alexander McQueen, Dries Van Noten, Jean Paul Gaultier, Thierry Mugler, Balenciaga, Prada and Gucci.

Thanks to their beauty, fragility and value, feathers and plumes had various connotations and were used throughout history in fashionable dress, both as an accessory and as part of the entire silhouette. The exhibition, organised by MoMu - Fashion Museum Antwerp, addresses aspects such as luxury, modernism, femininity, lightness, and also themes of lost innocence and dark romance.

“Whereas in the past, feathers were generally appreciated for their value and refinement, contemporary designers now see them as an expression of freedom and spirituality,” said the Museum’s Keeper of Textiles, Joanna Hashagen, who is curating the show with MoMu curators Karen Van Godtsenhoven and Wim Mertens.

The exhibition features the ancient profession of plumassier in cooperation with the Parisian Maison Lemarié, one of the last traditional feather studios. This fashion house has specialised in processing plumes, primarily for French haute couture, since 1880. Maison Lemarié is making samples of its beautiful feather work especially for this exhibition.

The fashion for feathers as accessories is also revealed with tantalising displays of fans, hats, including a number by Stephen Jones, and sumptuous feather shoes from Roger Vivier.

“It will also demonstrate that thanks to design houses such as Alexander McQueen and Dries Van Noten feathers are firmly back on the fashion agenda and once again featuring strongly on the catwalk,” said Joanna.

Birds of Paradise – Plumes & Feathers in Fashion opens on 25th October 2014 and runs until 19th April 2015.

A competition to redesign the 22-acre garden and grounds at The Bowes Museum has been won by Arabella Lennox-Boyd, who was among three
internationally renowned designers invited to submit plans for the £3m project.

Their brief was to create a garden to complement the Grade 1 listed building and its outstanding collection of fine and decorative arts. The design needed to be exciting for horticulturalists, cater for the wide range of visitors of all ages, and reflect the botanical importance of the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty where rare flowers such as the Blue Gentian grow.

The entries were uniformly excellent but Arabella Lennox-Boyd’s winning plans 'dazzled' the judges. The masterplan includes a parterre with shallow canals, a pergola, rose covered pavilions and stepped banks topped by pleached limes to frame the French style Museum. The design also includes a contemporary café, a horticultural therapy centre and a verdant play area with wide-scale trees, shrubs and herbaceous planting to provide horticultural interest throughout the year.

Peter Millican, a Trustee of The Bowes Museum and head of the judging panel, said: “I am extremely excited about the creation of a wonderful new garden. The Arabella Lennox-Boyd design is not only stunning but offers something for everyone and will continue to develop over the years, as all good gardens should. Her design complements both the Museum and the vision of its founders John and Joséphine Bowes.”

The other judges echoed his enthusiasm. Journalist and author, Christopher Stocks said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for The Bowes Museum to really raise its game, not only for its extraordinary building and remarkable collections, but for its gardens too. This will make it a first among British museums and is a brilliant way of encouraging other galleries to be more ambitious about their settings and surroundings.”

Clare Foster, Garden Editor, House & Garden magazine added: “With international garden design on the ascendant, it seems the time is right for such an exciting project and the Museum's stunning and unusual architecture deserves an equally striking landscape to complement it.”

SIX MASTERPIECES

An exhibition celebrating the conservation of an important painting not seen publicly for over half a century opens at The Bowes Museum next month.

The Last Communion of Saint Raymond Nonnatus forms the centrepiece of the show, Six Masterpieces, which includes significant loans from the Museo del Prado in Madrid and the National Gallery in London. The exhibition investigates the painting’s creator, Francisco Pacheco (1564-1654) and the Sevillian School of painting, exploring his role as the master of the second generation of painters in Seville during that period.

The painting is one of six executed by Pacheco for the Merced Calzada Convent in Seville, now the Museo de Bellas Artes. It is a work of great significance to the history of Spanish painting, an area in which The Bowes Museum excels; its collection boasts 76 works by Spanish artists, making it the finest venue in the UK to explore the genre after the National Gallery.

Pacheco was author of a critical treatise on the theories and practises of painting, Arte de la Pintura, which was fundamental to the development of Spanish Baroque painting. He was an important figure, both in the scope of his interests and teachings and as master and father-in-law of Diego Velázquez. The painting follows the techniques of his treatise, with chemical analysis proving that the ground colour came from silt from the Guadaquivir River which flows through Seville.

It was donated to The Bowes Museum in 1964 in memory of Tony Ellis, the Museum’s former Deputy Director, and now, following a lengthy period of restoration, it will take star billing in the exhibition which opens on Saturday 11th October.

“It was in storage from the 1960s to the 1990s, but in the early 70s a thick coat of varnish was applied to stabilise the paint; an accepted practice in those days,” said the Museum’s Conservation Manager, Jon Old.

Later, after consulting with other restorers, the Museum’s then paintings’ conservator felt the painting could be successfully restored and he set about cleaning it. Following his untimely death in 2004 various conservators, including Jon, continued the work, while a special relationship with the National Gallery saw it lined and cleaned there before the job of reconstructing the badly worn areas could be tackled back at the Museum.

David Everingham then took up the mantle, eventually going freelance to concentrate on the mammoth project in his Yorkshire studio.

“Those who saw the painting in its previous state will certainly see a massive difference,” said Jon. “It will definitely take pride of place in the exhibition.”

The exhibition, curated by Spanish art specialist Veronique Powell, former Chief Curator and senior lecturer at the Sorbonne in Paris, runs from Saturday 11th October 2014 until Sunday 1st February 2015.

The exhibitions will coincide with a major three-day conference drawing together top experts in Spanish art. Both are part of a joint collaboration between The Bowes Museum, Auckland Castle and Durham University, backed by the National Gallery and Museo del Prado, aimed at securing the profile of County Durham as an internationally renowned centre for Spanish art. They will be complemented by a series of four public lectures – two at The Bowes Museum and two at Auckland Castle – between November 2014 and February 2015, to broaden the symposium’s audience and further the understanding of Spanish art.

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BIRDS OF PARADISE: PLUMES & FEATHERS IN FASHION

A dramatic and striking new exhibition opens at The
Bowes Museum’s award winning Fashion & Textile Gallery in October; its only
UK venue.

Birds of
Paradise – Plumes and Feathers in Fashion is a tribute to the elegance of feathers used in
the fashion industry past and present, featuring extravagant catwalk creations
from British, Belgian, French and Italian designers including Alexander McQueen,
Dries Van Noten, Jean Paul Gaultier, Thierry Mugler, Balenciaga, Prada and
Gucci.

Thanks to their beauty, fragility
and value, feathers and plumes had various connotations and were used
throughout history in fashionable dress, both as an accessory and as part of
the entire silhouette. The exhibition, organised by MoMu - Fashion Museum
Antwerp, addresses aspects such as luxury, modernism, femininity, lightness,
and also themes of lost innocence and dark romance.

“Whereas in the past, feathers
were generally appreciated for their value and refinement, contemporary
designers now see them as an expression of freedom and spirituality,” said the
Museum’s Keeper of Textiles, Joanna Hashagen, who is curating the show with
MoMu curators Karen Van Godtsenhoven andWim Mertens.

The exhibition features the ancient profession of plumassier in cooperation with the Parisian Maison Lemarié, one of
the last traditional feather studios. This fashion house has specialised in
processing plumes, primarily for French haute couture, since 1880. Maison
Lemarié is making samples of its beautiful feather work especially for this
exhibition.

The fashion for feathers as accessories is also revealed with tantalising
displays of fans, hats, including a number by Stephen Jones, and sumptuous
feather shoes from Roger Vivier.

“It will also demonstrate that
thanks to design houses such as Alexander McQueen and Dries Van Noten feathers
are firmly back on the fashion agenda and once again featuring strongly on the
catwalk,” said Joanna.

Birds of Paradise – Plumes &
Feathers in Fashion opens on 25th October 2014 and runs until 19th
April 2015.